Supporting our Teachers

Great teachers are on a professional journey of continuous learning and growth. To fuel that journey for our teachers, the KC Pre-K Cooperative invests in meaningful professional learning opportunities. Shared professional development is a valuable benefit of Cooperative membership; by pooling resources, partners are able to tap best-in-class resources.

Thanks to the support of our philanthropic partners, our teachers started the year with a week of intensive training on curriculum, instruction, and assessment at the Cooperative’s Summer Institute, which was organized in partnership with The Family Conservancy. A one-stop shop to prepare for the school year, Summer Institute provided sessions free of charge to all teachers on Creative Curriculum, DRDP, PKOF, CLASS, and Conscious Discipline. Bringing teachers from across the Cooperative’s six early childhood partner locations enabled us to maximize our funders generous support.

Such learning opportunities - and efficiencies - have continued into the school year. Our teachers have also attended quarterly training session on data driven instruction with AppleTree Institute, known nationally for their early childhood instructional model, and have monthly coaching sessions with TFA Accelerate to build their instructional practice.

“The partnership between Teach For America-Kansas City's Accelerate program and the KC Pre-K Cooperative has focused on what each individual teacher is needing, from relationships with students to using DRDP data to create strong data informed small groups,” explains instructional coach Jess Tolan. “By letting the teacher drive our coaching, I am ensuring that each teacher feels supported but also empowered, which can lead to a beautiful teaching environment for our students.”